Beam projectors are used in media presentation environments such as business meetings, home theaters and the like. In general, the beam projector has taken the place of overhead projectors, slide projectors, and other devices used for showing visual presentations. For example, it is common in a meeting to connect a laptop or other computing system to a beam projector and then project a media presentation that everyone in the room can observe (e.g., slideshow, video, real-time data, or the like). In most multimedia type rooms, the beam projector is mounted on the ceiling and hardwired to an outlet on the wall and a user connects their laptop with the hardwiring to utilize the beam projector.
However, multimedia rooms are cost prohibitive. Therefore, an office building may have a few multimedia rooms but generally not all the meeting rooms will be multimedia rooms. Additionally, in the non-multimedia rooms, it may also be necessary to view a visual presentation. Therefore, a presenter may carry a portable beam projector to ensure that they will be able to show the visual presentation even if they do not have access to a multimedia room.
Portable beam projectors also provide the ability for a presenter to hold a meeting in a location other than the multimedia room or even the office building. For example, the presentation may be shown at the back room of a coffee shop, a restaurant, or any location that has a power outlet.
However, one drawback of beam projectors is the need to continually change the pages during a presentation. For example, during a slide type presentation (or any presentation with changing items) the presenter must either use a second person to control the presentation or use a device to manually move along the presentation (e.g., a mouse, keyboard, remote control, or the like). When using a device to manually move along the presentation, the presenter must continually move to a fixed location (e.g., the location of the keyboard or mouse, or a location at which the remote can act on the beam projector). This continual relocation of a presenter and interrupting burden can often result in a choppy presentation with significant visual distraction for the audience.
In order to alleviate the distraction of the audience, or due to hardware restrictions, in some presentations the manual input for the beam projector is performed by a second person sitting in a different location. In that case, the second person operates on voice commands or signals given by the presenter. This can alleviate the visual distraction of a presenter continually interacting with the presentation, but can also result in miscues associated with the second person missing a command, or a signal, not paying attention, being distracted, or the like.
An additional drawback of a portable beam projector is the cooling time after the beam projector is turned off. For example, a standard beam projector requires a long time delay (many minutes) of fan operation after shutdown to allow bulb and optics to cool. For a mounted beam projector hardwired to the building power, this may not be a concern. However, for a portable beam projector, it means that the presenter must wait a long time delay (many minutes) after the visual presentation ends before he can unplug and pack-up the portable beam projector.
Beam projectors, both mounted and portable, also require an amount of cooling during their operation. Specifically, the light-generating source of the beam projector gets extremely hot and requires a fan to provide the cooling to maintain the life of the bulb. However, when the fan is operational, noise from the fan is loud enough to interfere with conversations. This problem is even more pronounced when teleconferencing or video-conferencing is used during the presentation. In that case, the fan may provide negative feedback to the conferencing microphone causing disrupted reception for the off-site personnel.
In addition to the presentation and cooling issues discussed herein, beam projectors both mounted and portable also contain drawbacks with respect to sharing, multiple presenters, and the like. For example, during a presentation the beam projector is a “dumb” device. That is, it functions as a monitor. In order to use the projector it must be connected to a computing system. Therefore, not only must a presenter ensure that a beam projector (e.g., mounted or portable) is present, the presenter must also ensure that a computing system is available for connection with the beam projector. In some cases, e.g., multimedia rooms, the beam projector may be connected with a desktop computer. In other cases, the user will have to hook a portable computer up to the beam projector.